Honest tunes from Ekoostik Hookah

Ekoostik Hookah drove down the road from Columbus, Ohio to Newport, Kentucky's Southgate House on December 15, armed with material for a new recording the band cut in Atlanta, Ga.

Founding singer and guitarist John Mullins described the inspiration behind the band's latest recording: "Some months back, Cary Romanoff, an old friend, contacted the group about reliving some old tunes, namely, the ones from our first recording, Under Full Sail, in the form of a new disc. With some small debate, we decided that theses songs had grown up quite a bit.

"The recording studio was Tree Sound Studios in Atlanta. It is a facility that uses Green Mountain Energy produced from wind, solar and biomass. Our engineer, Shawn Groves, knew all the ins and outs, so we made good progress right away.

"In the studio, we were able to get down these songs: "A Farewell from Future's Past," "Arctic Song," "Lazy River," "Under Full Sail" and a few new tunes, "Tumblin'" and "Waterbear."

On to the live room there called "The Cave" where we recorded the rest, "One World," "Walk Real Slow," "Stuck in the Snow," "Freedom Flying" and "Utopia" as well as "Sun Goes Down" and "Carousel." The Cave was a very live room filled with a couple hundred Hookah fiends and friends, and had recording cable holder 'snake' leading to the control room where we'd done our other work.

"These shows were a blast. We were making a rock and roll album with 200 of our friends, and that was a very cool thing for our fans as well as us. I'd like to see us go back into the studio, and, personally, I'd like it to be down in Georgia. There are some really good people to work with down there, and we have more than enough honest tunes and newer ones on the way."

The Southgate House show contained much of Hookah's stellar recording Under Full Sail as well as some old favorites like "Life is Good," "Loner" and "Backwoods Rose." They referenced to their biannual gathering in the song "Hookahville" with keyboardist Dave Katz featured on acoustic guitar. The band was tight, rocking hard and covering standards by John Hiatt ("Memphis in the Meantime") and Bob Dylan ("Highway 61.")

Overall, it was one of the sharpest Hookah experiences in recent memory, and lent anticipation to the group's new recording and subsequent tour of summer music festivals.

The Devil and Me, Find Out, Riverman, Under Full Sail, Comin' Back to Me, Descent into the Maelstrom, Life is Good, Bad Platypus, Loner Set 2: Carousel, Memphis in the Meantime, Highway 61, Backwoods Rose, Train in the Distance, When the Sun Goes Down, Hookahville